Reading this brings me so much sadness. I am a wounded combat veteran from the war in Vietnam. I worked with other combat veterans over a 30-year career as a social worker and therapist. The places we fought are different, the times separated by years, but the anguish, pain, isolation, distrust, sense of shame, anger and alienation are the same.

We now have “evidence-based” therapies, so we lightly train newly graduated therapists in them, people who have no real understanding of the military, war or combat, and ask them to solve a riddle they don’t understand.

That these veterans are helping one another is a good thing, but not enough. Vet Centers, run by the V.A., are often staffed by therapists who are themselves veterans, often combat veterans. I hope these men reach out to them for help, as they try to help themselves.

THOMAS W. MURRAY

York, Pa.

To the Editor:

Your article about the post-deployment suicide rate in a single Marine battalion does a disservice to the dedicated staff engaged in suicide prevention at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For a forthcoming book about the V.A., I have observed and interviewed its health care providers, patients — many of whom tell me that the V.A. saved their lives — and members of patients’ families in V.A. facilities throughout the country. I have been tremendously impressed by the V.A.’s systematic efforts to help patients cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury of the sort highlighted in your profile of these Marine veterans.

Readers of The Times are, unfortunately, left with the impression that the V.A.’s mental health outreach and counseling, suicide prevention hotlines, and peer support groups are either inadequate or inaccessible. From what I have seen, this is not the case, and such programs, when properly funded, are working well. In fact, V.A. staff members encourage just the kind of self-help and patient solidarity praised as a lifesaver in your article.

Let’s not forget one very relevant fact: These men are casualties of war. The tragic suicides among them are not the product of bad patient experiences — real or perceived — at the V.A. They are the product of chronic, hard-to-treat conditions acquired or worsened during their previous employment with the Department of Defense.

SUZANNE GORDON

Richmond, Calif.

To the Editor:

Just after reading your devastating article, I finished reading Willa Cather’s brilliant novel “One of Ours,” which is about Claude, a lost young man who finds meaning in going to fight the Germans in France in World War I — and dies. And I came across this:

“One by one the heroes of that war, the men of dazzling soldiership, leave prematurely the world they have come back to. Airmen whose deeds were tales of wonder, officers whose names made the blood of youth beat faster, survivors of incredible dangers — one by one they quietly die by their own hand.”

Sadly, some things don’t change, and perhaps before our leaders send more of our young men and women to die in some future “unfunded” war, they’ll stop and consider what they’re doing, and think about the lives they’re destroying.

SCHUYLER BISHOP

New York

To the Editor:

Your article about suicides among veterans of heavy combat should lead to one conclusion: If you are a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychological problems, don’t go to the V.A. Go to a private facility or practitioner.

Why would we be surprised by the failings of the V.A.? It is a federal government bureaucracy.

As a clinical social worker, I’ve counseled veterans who used their private insurance from their post-military civilian jobs. I’ve also seen one or two through Military OneSource, a Defense Department employee assistance program that uses private practitioners. Some of my colleagues signed up for a program called “Give an Hour,” which provides free counseling to veterans. However, my colleagues received few to no patients. Maybe veterans don’t know about these options? It’s too bad your article did not provide a more comprehensive list of resources for veterans.

It is possible to receive competent treatment if you look for it.

ANNE RETTENBERG

New York

To the Editor:

Your article discusses failed therapies, but does not mention some alternative therapies that may be effective.

In discussing therapeutic failures, the article refers to exposure therapy, which involves re-experiencing traumatic memories under safe conditions. David J. Morris’s recent book about post-traumatic stress syndrome, an excerpt from which was published in this newspaper, gives a harrowing account of what this therapy sometimes entails.

Other therapeutic approaches have been used within and outside the V.A. Among other alternatives, therapeutic music has enjoyed success. At the Institute for Music and Neurological Function, co-founded by Dr. Oliver Sacks, veterans who have participated in therapeutic music sessions report great improvement in symptoms, a renewed capacity for enjoyment of life, greater motivation to engage in social activities, improvement in family life and reductions in medication.

For the sake of our veterans, give music a chance.

HARRY BALLAN

Bronx

The writer is a board member of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function and directs its program for veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome and traumatic brain injury.

To the Editor:

Your article about the Marine unit with multiple suicides struck a chord with me, as I thought not only of the honorable men who died of the internal agony of the scars of war, but also of their families. For every person who dies by suicide, friends and family members are mourning and wishing that somebody could have done something to prevent those deaths.

Yes, more attention needs to be paid to suicide prevention, but attention also needs to be paid to those left behind, so that survivor grief and guilt do not destroy those lives, too.

CHRISTOPHER LUKAS

Sparkill, N.Y.

The writer is the co-author of “Silent Grief: Living in the Wake of Suicide.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A34 of the New York edition with the headline: The Suicides in a Marine Battalion . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe